Henry F. Ashurst

Henry Fountain Ashurst (13 September 1874-31 May 1962) was a US Senator from Arizona (D) from 27 March 1912 to 3 January 1941, preceding Ernest W. McFarland.

Biography
Henry Fountain Ashurst was born in Winnemucca, Nevada in 1874, and his family moved to a ranch near Williams, Arizona when he was two. He became a lawyer in 1897, and he was elected to the Territorial House of Representatives that same year. He was elected to the Territorial Senate in 1902 and served as District Attorney of Coconino County from 1905 to 1908, when he moved to Prescott. In 1911, he presided over Arizona's constitutional convention, and he was also elected to the US Senate. During his early years in the Senate, he was a supported of Woodrow Wilson's presidency, and he criticized Republican leaders and policy during the 1920s and the Great Depression. Ashurst was known for his love of long words, his self-contradictory voting record, and for a love of public speaking that made him known as a great orator. In 1940, he was defeated in the Democratic senatorial primary by Ernest W. McFarland, and he died in Washington DC in 1962 at the age of 87.